The latest open day at the London School of Architecture was last night. It was great to see some study/precedent models emerging, taught by Hugh Strange - in particular this lovely pink fragment of Webb’s Red House.

Water firms could be let off pollution fines as part of government overhaul

"This was not a settlement that was ever designed, rather it evolved out of a disparity between different understandings of space." I love @drdavidknight.bsky.social's humanistic, democratic writing on place and architecture & this is typically fascinating: knightdavid.substack.com/p/other-plan...

Back in 2011 I was thinking about how planning and design benefit from the unexpected, the accidental, and understanding limits. Still am really. Here is a visual essay from that time, commissioned by Sam Jacob and featuring some vintage (2010) phone photos. knightdavid.substack.com/p/experiment...

@dk-cm.bsky.social 's work creating and refurbishing public toilets is celebrated in the Guardian today. The piece includes our work on the listed Bruce Grove WCs but we will be celebrating our refurbished public toilets in Camber Sands in the coming weeks. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Beautiful antidote to algorithmic Christmas rotations from Laura Cannell on @thequietus.com thequietus.com/subscriber-a...

Before the elaborate folds and crinkles of the Guggenheim et al dominated his office's work, there were decades of work by a relentlessly playful and experimental architect, forever improvising and testing. Thanks Frank Gehry.

This was an excellent event and a lovely crowd, thanks Justin. Dear the Long Year is next on the pile.

Some heavy stuff on the workings of popular culture open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

* JOB ALERT * Nature recovery and creating new wildlife havens sit at the heart of the National Park Authority's work 🦉 We're currently seeking a Strategy Lead for Nature Recovery. Apply 👉 bit.ly/3K3QVpY 📷 Corinne Kozok

‘An urban rule, far from being a mere restriction on creativity, can on occasion be the most creative act.’ Other Plans #4 explores the portici of Bologna. open.substack.com/pub/knightda... #thespringline

Loved this book: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s event at the Architecture Foundation where we spoke and listened to/about oral history at the Art Workers Guild - a screen-free conversation about conversation & the practising of history. Thank you Mary Chamberlain & Jerry White, and my cohost Cristina Monteiro.

‘Where English churches imitate the sacred groves of the forest, early Cornish churches, with their ribbed and curved roof timbers, imitate boats or even the skeletons of fish.’ - Roger Deakin, Waterlog. Its a nice thought - any Cornish churches that reinforce this idea greatly appreciated.

The best gig I ever saw cost £4. Spiralling concert prices are a cultural disaster | John Harris

SPEAKING OUT: ORAL HISTORY FOR ARCHITECTS | With Cristina Monteiro I am hosting an exciting event for the Architecture Foundation, focussing on oral history in relation to place and architecture. With brilliant oral historians Mary Chamberlain and Jerry White. More info + tickets:

@oldweirdalbion.bsky.social have you got, or have ever seen, a map of the land that Vera Pragnell bought/owned? I have all the historic mapping for the lifespan of the sanctuary in its pure form. but not its extents.

SPEAKING OUT: ORAL HISTORY FOR ARCHITECTS | With Cristina Monteiro I am hosting an exciting event for the Architecture Foundation, focussing on oral history in relation to place and architecture. With brilliant oral historians Mary Chamberlain and Jerry White. More info + tickets:

My first childhood explorations of woodcraft described (with holiday photos taken by my Nan!) in a new essay The Remains of a Circle open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Strange and wonderful things that happened in a New Forest woodland. knightdavid.substack.com/p/the-remain...

Like Jeremy Corbyn and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, I grew up in Woodcraft Folk. Here’s how it changes children’s lives | Phineas Harper

A piece of my writing about the beautiful & influential Arquitectura Popular em Portugal (1961), exploring its role in subverting oppressive state power in dictatorship-era Portugal to develop a progressive, locally-inflected architecture in challenging times. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Found John I. Williams’ biography of CLR James both inspiring and enlightening. Like all good biographies it feels like a study of an era and a culture as much as of a single human. And who knew that much of The Black Jacobins was written in Portslade of all places?

Good stuff on the relevance of the club/trades hall model to contemporary venues and community spaces from @thequietus.com - class is an important consideration here. thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

Other Plans #2 explores a squatted settlement on former common land in Oxfordshire, where the houses cluster around the public house. knightdavid.substack.com/p/other-plan...

An old text this time (2014!) celebrating Colin Ward, originally written to be delivered at the Garden Museum in London. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

@oldweirdalbion.bsky.social is bringing the Steyning-based Vine Press back to life and fundraising via sales of this wonderful anthology about the world of the Vine Press, Victor Neuburg and Vera Pragnell: oldweirdalbion.bigcartel.com/product/a-sa...

A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.

absolutely exquisite episode of @firedrawnear.bsky.social this time - Blackwater Side podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

OTHER PLANS is an occasional series of short essays on alternative methods or tactics of planning. I’ve been collecting these for 15 years and am now writing them up. The first is about Brighton’s North Laine, structured by its origins as an agricultural landscape. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

“I don’t feel like I want to go louder. I feel like I want to go deeper and broader, rather than projecting out. It’s like you want to get right into the ground and the shape of the hills...” #Haress Interviewed buff.ly/q70xXns

My most recent short essay on the Spring Line is about the urgent need to conserve buildings which speak of Britain's history of self-build and plotland development. knightdavid.substack.com/p/handmade-h...

Why we should urgently be acting to protect, conserve and documenting our remaining plotland dwellings and their close cousins open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

I have tidied up and refocussed a lost fragment of my phd as a short(er) piece about the politics of early planning, and its complex power structures and elitisms. It is called Mean Building. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

This brilliant @thequietus.com conversation on M. R. James explores his influence and connections, and @luketurner.bsky.social comes up with the excellent phrase ‘dolmen for goalposts’ when discussing the risks of tweeness in folk nostalgia. thequietus.com/subscriber-a...

Excellent review of a magical record, Shirley Collins’ ‘southern journey’ through the music of Sussex recorded before her southern journey into the US to record folk song with Alan Lomax. Remarkable, potent stuff.

‘I moved past them, window to window, carriage to carriage, such that I had the curious sensation of standing motionless on a platform with the train steadily departing, the mysterious lives of its diverse passengers glimpsed only for a moment as they passed.’ open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

I wrote, a little while ago, about alternative land practices from history. DEEDS is up now on my substack, thank you Clare Cumberlidge for the original commission. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Bad results and carbon intensive results too.

Lovely review by @luketurner.bsky.social of Ken Worpole’s new collection of essays. @littletollerbooks.bsky.social

What a fantastic article from Mike Hogan with @vanityfair.com for the 35th Anniversary of #TwinPeaks. I spoke with Mike during the Real Twin Peaks 2025 event. His article is a wonderful look back and turns a spotlight on friends who love the show as much as I do. www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/st...

…the previous episode, featuring @drdavidknight.bsky.social on plotlands and their champion, anarchist writer Colin Ward, is also a fascinating listen open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

“Landscape is a combination of the human world and the natural world and therefore people are very important in it” hard recommend for the great Ken Worpole on the @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social podcast… open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

Listening to you and Ken now @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social - so good that these two chats have followed each other!

An interview with me by Justin Hopper @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social on his brilliant Uncanny Landscapes podcast - plotlands, obscure planning history, everyday anarchism and place fiction.

Bravo @drtombolton.bsky.social on #RichardDawson’s new masterpiece: ‘it is increasingly apparent that human connection… is the only thing that matters, & also the hardest. Dawson’s music propels us into its deep meanings, & shows us that the places we fail to examine are where we will find meaning’

What should the Grenfell memorial look like? History has some answers | Neal Shasore

Västerortskyrkan (1956), Vällingby, Stockholm - Carl Nyrén & Bertil Engstrand

Writers, musicians, actors & other creators strongly oppose upending copyright law to favour AI companies, as suggested in the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan. As Kate Mosse says, seeking economic growth "cannot be on the basis of theft of our work". www.theguardian.com/technology/2...